The European Commission deputy chief spokesperson on Tuesday (March 14) said the EU is ready for Brexit negotiations and declined to speculate on whether an independent Scotland could take over Britain’s EU membership once the country leaves the union.
“This is a question which is as interesting as it is hypothetical,” Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein told a daily briefing.
On Monday (March 13), Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a planned vote on secession before Brexit in 2019.
Sturgeon complained that British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will trigger the two-year withdrawal process this month, was not seeking a special deal for Scotland that might, say, have left it in the EU single market once the rest of the UK leaves.
Winterstein also told reporters that the EU and its Brexit chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, were ready to handle two years of talks with the British government.
“I don’t know the date when the letter, the notification, of the United Kingdom is going to arrive, but what I do know is that we are ready. We are close, and we are ready,” he said.
Scots voted by a 24-point margin to stay in the EU in last June’s referendum, while England and Wales voted to leave.
(REUTERS)